Qiao Xiaoyang says Beijing forced into universal suffrage debate
Top NPC official said events in Hong Kong forced Beijing to enter reform debate and suggest that pan-democrats will be kept out of race for top job
It should come as no surprise to Hongkongers to see Qiao Xiaoyang, a top National People's Congress official, setting the tone for the debate on the city's political reform even before the government kick-starts the consultation on how to elect the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017.
Qiao, the chairman of the Law Committee under the NPC Standing Committee, told almost 40 pro-establishment lawmakers at a closed-door seminar in Shenzhen on Sunday that any members of the opposition camp who insist on confronting the central government could not become chief executive.
He said: "If a person who confronts the central government becomes the chief executive, it can be expected that the tension between the two governments will be heightened, the close connection between Hong Kong and the mainland will be damaged, and that Hong Kong society will be torn apart."
If a person who confronts the central government becomes the chief executive, it can be expected that the tension between the two governments will be heightened
In the wake of growing pressure from the pan-democratic camp to guarantee "genuine universal suffrage" for the chief-executive race in 2017 and the "Occupy Central" plan gaining momentum, Beijing felt it had little choice but to take the initiative in setting the parameters for the debate on universal suffrage.
Those familiar with the history of the Communist Party know that the last thing it wants is to be forced into passivity.
A lawmaker who attended the seminar on universal suffrage for Hong Kong said Qiao indicated that the central government had been "forced" to weigh in to the political-reform debate at such an early stage, citing four recent developments in Hong Kong.
First were the questions raised by pan-democrats about the government delaying the consultation process after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address in January. This was followed by University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting planning for the Occupy Central movement to rally at least 10,000 people to block roads in Central on July 1, to put pressure on Beijing to keep its promise of allowing genuine universal suffrage in 2017.
The third development came on March 6, when Yu Zhengsheng , a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, said it "would not be good for Hong Kong or the country if opposition forces ruled Hong Kong", sparking controversy about a possible screening mechanism.